


you don't have to go home (but you can't stay here)

by Kealpos



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alive Bianca di Angelo, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Dark Percy Jackson, F/M, Gen, Moral Ambiguity, One Shot, Percy joins Kronos AU, Poisoning, TFW your side of the war poisons your GF but fuck the other side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kealpos/pseuds/Kealpos
Summary: Bianca di Angelo learns how to cross a barrier.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Bianca di Angelo, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Bianca di Angelo & Percy Jackson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	you don't have to go home (but you can't stay here)

**Author's Note:**

> title from Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants
> 
> this is technically an offshoot of a larger, percy-pov "percy and annabeth join kronos" au, but ive wanted to write this bit for a while, and i probably wont finish the rest, so.. here we are.  
> all you need to know is: sally died in the minotaur attack, luke convinced annabeth and percy to join kronos, and in response, hades brought his kids out of the lotus hotel a year earlier (thalia was never revived), and annabeth and percy got together earlier due the exacerbation of Everything. everything else youll probably be able to pick up as you go along.

It had been a long day. Bianca had scoured the shadows of the beach town carefully, watching the sun move through the sky and the positions change. There were traces of Nico’s spirit drifting through the air, but not enough to lead her to him. It was just enough to signal to her that had been here once, but in a teasing way. Bianca knew it was a wild goose chase, but she had to keep trying.

The dusk had long since passed when Bianca trudged back to the safehouse, the only light coming from the moon and the dim lanterns that petered off the closer she got to the shack. It was some old rickety thing in a hidden corner of the beach, and it looked like it would be knocked over at the first storm, but it also had a mattress and blanket, which was too-often a rarity.

As the sand crunched under her boots, Bianca couldn’t help but wonder when she’d find some good news. It had been nearly two and a half weeks of sniffing out her younger brother’s trail after he got captured, and she still had yet to find any substantial news. It was starting to get hard to keep up hope.

She shouldered her way into the shack -- literally shouldered; the thing was impossible to budge open without force -- and sighed, rooting through her pockets for the food she had snagged in town, through perfectly legal means she would assure if confronted by an owner. Of course, she never was confronted, so.

All Bianca really wanted was to eat, sleep, and then follow the soul-tinged trail of her brother until it either went cold or she got called back to camp.

There were only two rooms in the safehouse: in the front, was a small room seemingly dedicated entirely to weaponry. Sure, there was a small food pantry tucked in a corner, but there were dozens of weapons littering the floor and walls. The majority of them were shit, broken, or just not Bianca’s style, but she had looked through them. The pantry too, in the morning. She probably ought to replenish the pantry for the next poor soul before she left.

Bianca opened up the pantry, barely glancing at the contents as she fished thing after thing out of her jacket pockets. (One of the benefits of your dad being Hades and having a room in the underworld - you could guilt-trip him into magicifying all your pockets to go to your room.) She stuck a can of beans next to the canned peaches that had been in the thing for who knows how long, and it was only when she stretched up to place a second canister of powdered milk near the top did she realize something was wrong.

Just that morning, there was a nearly full jug of nectar up at the top, amber in the cracks of light that managed to leak through the walls. It was emptier, Bianca realized. Someone other than her had been in the house, had gone through the pantry, had taken nectar.

Di immortales, she was stupid!

Bianca rushed towards the room with the cot, not even bothering to finish sorting the food because _there was someone in the house._ When she discovered the skimmed off nectar, it was only then did she realize that there were _two additional souls_ in the safehouse. She tugged her bow and arrow out of her jacket pockets, quickly pulling them into position, moving to the entryway of the second room, ready for whatever faced her.

Well, ready for everything except for: Percy Jackson kneeling on the cot, with Annabeth Chase cradled in his arms and radiating illness

As Bianca skidded to a stop, Percy looked up at her. There were tear tracks on his face. _Percy Jackson_ had _tear tracks_ on his face.

“di Angelo,” Percy said, voice raspy. “Help me.”

Even though _she_ was the one with a silver-point arrow trained at his face, Bianca suddenly felt scared. The last time she had seen Percy and Annabeth had also been the last time she had seen Nico, three weeks previous. 

Everybody knew their story: the dead daughter of Zeus, the five years of camp, the dead mom and minotaur, the lightning bolt, the son of Hermes, the scorpion sicced on one of Demeter’s kids who caught them, the reign of terror that followed. Bianca knew all too well about the reign of terror.

“What?” Bianca asked, automatically taking a step back. Percy reached a hand out but didn’t come much closer outside of the small range granted to him without moving his body. By the furtive glance down that immediately followed, Bianca could guess he didn’t want to jostle Annabeth too much.

“She’s-- She’s been hurt. She got sick. The nectar isn’t helping, and I can’t risk giving her any more of it,” Percy rushed out. “Please. You have to help me.”

“What are you doing here? How did-- How did you even find this place?”

“She built it!” He replied, rapid-fire and desperate. “di Angelo, for gods’ sake! She’s going to _die!_ ”

That jolted Bianca into action. Annabeth Chase was curled up into a little ball, held tight by Percy. Her chest heaved up and down slow, laborious, like every breath was a fight, and her face had taken on a sickly pallor. Percy was right, she was close to death. Something happened to her, and it was killing her, fast.

Bianca squared her jaw. They were the enemy. She didn’t want anyone to die, regardless. While she didn’t put her weapon away, she did lower it. “What do you want me to do?”

Percy wasted no time to instruct her. His eyes were wide open, something very feverish behind them. “You can shadow travel, right? Of course you can, we’ve been tracking you for-- Nevermind. There are medics at Camp Half-Blood. An infirmary. I need you to take her there.”

Tracking her? What? “You want to go to Camp Half-Blood?”

“Yes!”

Bianca bit her lower lip, considering her options. The more she deliberated and drew their interaction out, the worse off the two of them looked. Finally, Bianca pointed out the elephant in the room: “I don’t-- You two took Nico. You kidnapped my little brother.”

Percy at least had the decency to look ashamed, though he didn’t deny it, simply agreeing, “I know,” and shutting his eyes tight. He looked exhausted, as if the corroboration of his misdoings had just sealed Annabeth’s life, and he was giving one final prayer.

Bianca stood there for a moment, stricken, watching them. Then, she told him, “Get your stuff. I’ll shadow travel you over.”

Percy’s head darted up to look at her in surprise, but she was already turning away, going to finish gathering her things. Oh, Gods, she was going to regret this.

Bianca finished stocking the pantry at record speed, only taking the necessities with her, because apparently, she’d be going back to camp a lot sooner than she thought. As she did so, she contemplated how she’d ended up here in the first place. Remembered the last time she had seen Percy and Annabeth.

It was less than a month ago. She could still smell the forest, all earthy yet filled to the brim with immortal magic. Bianca, Nico, and Grover had been tracking Luke Castellan down, tracing him to the Monongahela Forest, wherein the heart lay a tree bearing a powerful fruit: Aphrodite’s three golden apples used to bring Atalanta and Hippomenes together. They were so enchanting and powerful, you could distract anyone with them.

Luke had brought Annabeth and Percy with him. They were his second-in-commands, the completion of the trio, and a powerful one at that. Bianca had been so preoccupied with fighting off Luke and Percy, she hadn’t paid attention to Grover and Nico, who had managed to gather the apples before the other three could. If she had been watching, then maybe… but, no.

What happened: Annabeth, with her invisibility cap, knocked Grover out, gathered the apples, then, before Nico could attack, she simply rolled one against the dirt, and he was enamored. Nico couldn’t even fight it.

Bianca had been close to winning against Percy and Luke. She was more comfortable with a bow and arrow, but she could still fight with a sword, and she was sure Grover and Nico were backing her up, preparing to jump in any second. She was so close. And then, there was someone behind her, invisible. And then, she was upside down and there was blood and dirt mixing in her mouth. And then, she heard, “Leave the girl.” And then, Nico was gone.

Bianca realized she was clutching a container of peanut butter so tightly her knuckles were going white. She deliberately relaxed her hand and set it on the shelf. There would be time for anger later, when another person’s life wasn’t at stake.

She re-entered the other room to find Percy rooting through her backpack, which, like, not cool? “What the hell are you doing?” She stomped over and pulled the bag from him. Percy held his hands up apologetically. “Are you seriously stealing from me right now? I’m helping you, and you’re stealing from me?”

“I was putting something back in,” Percy shot back, unrepentant. “I borrowed a drachma. I was going to get in touch with Chiron if you didn’t show up soon. He always liked Annabeth and I. I figured he’d help us if you refused.”

“Maybe. What happened anyway?” She asked, voice sharp as she double-checked he didn’t steal anything of importance from her bag. “I mean, she was affected by whatever it was, but you weren’t, so it wasn’t a monster or anything. ...Right?”

Percy paused for a second, kneeling down near Annabeth, before he pulled her up into a fireman’s carry, grunting at the weight. Bianca was impressed, but she wasn’t happy about it. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

“If you want her healed correctly, yes, you do.”

He turned away from her. “It’s not like you’re going to be the medic, though.” Bianca pursed her lips at that. He was right, technically. There wasn’t much value in telling her what happened. “Can we leave.”

“Fine,” Bianca said, shrugging her backpack on. “But before I take you there, you have to do something for me first.”

“Holy fuck, _what,_ di Angelo? Annabeth’s life--”

“If you don’t do this, I don’t take you,” Bianca told him simply, and he shut up, glaring at her.

“The thing is--” Bianca took in a heavy breath, steeling herself. She was not a pushover. It had been a long time since she just did things because people told her to. Now, she could make her own choices, and one of those choices was trying to minimize damage. “The thing is, I need assurance. I want something in return. I want my brother back. I get you’re probably trying to, I don’t know, use him somehow. Either as a threat against me or just in general. It doesn’t matter. Because he’s my little brother, and you took him from me, and I won’t forget that. 

“Look, Percy, I--” He was paying attention now, good. “--will not commit revenge, or whatever. Not when there are two lives on the line. At the same time, what I want you to do is simple: right now, swear on the River Styx you and Annabeth won’t pull any tricks during your time inside the camp, and you’ll tell me how to get my brother back once she’s healed.” Bianca stuck her hand out to him.

He barely even stopped to think. Percy quickly grabbed her hand and shook it, promising, “I swear by the River Styx that if you heal her, Annabeth and I will follow all of the terms you’ve set forth. Now, let’s _go._ ”

Bianca smiled, something sharp yet sympathetic, and grabbed him by the forearm. He didn’t shrug her off, despite his obvious discomfort, and without so much as a warning from her, they slipped into the shadows.

When they landed, Bianca had to keep holding onto Percy until he managed to regain his balance, the poor guy almost toppling over twice in his hurry to figure out where they had landed. It was just inside the camp borders, near the Apollo cabin, but even as she watched for nostalgia to light up his eyes, it didn’t come, or at least not as strongly as she would’ve hoped.

“Remember, you made an oath,” Bianca said mildly, and he shook his head at her, not answering. Above them, the sky cracked open, dark and loud and thunderous. It slowly began to rain.

She watched with offhand fascination as the rain actually landed sharp against the campgrounds rather than sliding off of the protective bubble until Percy said, “di Angelo, can we hurry this up?”

Bianca looked over at him, and while it was hard to see much more than an outline in the dark, she could tell he wasn’t getting wet. Neither was Annabeth. Zeus was letting rain pour down from the heavens and it didn’t even touch them.

After a moment, Bianca pulled her gaze away and marched up to the Apollo cabin before Percy had an aneurysm. She pounded on the door in time with the beating of the rain, even going far as shouting loud nonsense until finally, _finally,_ someone answered the door.

The poor Apollo kid started, angry and confused, “Wha-?”

“I need the best healer you’ve got,” Bianca interrupted.

She could see it on their face as they did the mental math, considering the unholy time, the drenched daughter of Hades on their doorstep, and the disgraced son of Poseidon wielding a corpse just behind her. After a moment, they sighed, sagging with it, and gave a loud whistle that woke up the cabin members that hadn’t gotten up the first time around. “Where’s Will?” They asked, resigned.

“Goddammit!” The presumable Will cursed, falling out of bed with a loud thud. She watched placidly as he scrambled up and over, taking note of his Power Ranger pajama pants. “Whazzit?” He asked, irritated at the interruption of his beauty sleep.

“You’re the best healer, then?” Bianca asked, and he slumped against the doorway.

“Yeah, Will Solace. I guess I’m good.” He squinted at her for a moment until he recognized her in the dark. “Oh, di Angelo! You’re back! Did you find your brother?”

“Getting there,” she replied, and there was a not-so-subtle cough from behind her, Percy signaling for her to hurry it up. “Look, I get it’s late, but I need you to heal someone for me.”

At that point, it was starting to dawn on Will that whatever he got woken up for was important, and weird. He looked around her to point out Percy. “Is that…?”

“Yes,” Bianca replied, relieved she didn’t have to do much explaining. Will’s other siblings were starting to poke their heads out the door to gape at the trio on their doorstep, and the unusual thundering was beginning to pull other campers out of their cabins as well. People were watching them, silent, confused, intrigued. “Can you help?”

Will was silent for a moment before he locked eyes with the boy behind her and told the two of them, voice deadly serious, “I can try.”

The rain soaked Bianca’s hair, plastering it onto her face and neck, and it made the Earth feel soft under her feet. She and Will escorted their two newest campers to the medical tent, bracketing Percy in on both sides. Will had grabbed a dagger before exiting his cabin, just to demonstrate a point.

“What exactly happened?” Will asked quietly as they led him over. Surely, he was trying to deter people from listening in, granting Percy the smallest amount of privacy he had left. Percy snuck a glance at Bianca, before resigning to his fate.

His answer was clipped and cold, but he still replied, “A diluted version of Gorgon blood.”

Will tripped over himself in shock. He started to speed up, but still managed to turn his panicked face towards Percy. “Are you-- Gorgon blood? You’re not just fucking with me?”

“Why would I lie to you about something like this?” He snapped. “It’s serious, but it’s not straight Gorgon blood from the left side. It’s a half-and-half. We use it on monsters. It doesn’t kill them, it just seriously incapacitates them until they’re given pure right-side blood.”

“Then why are you desperate to heal her?” Bianca interjected. “I mean, if it doesn’t kill people...”

Percy gave her a withering look. “I said it doesn’t kill _monsters._ Does she look like a monster to you?” Bianca decided not to answer that particular question. 

Will dashed ahead of them and held open the door to the infirmary for the three of them, muttering to himself about what medicine they had in stock. As she and Will stepped inside, wiping their muddy boots against the mat near the door, Percy moved over to an empty cot, quick as he could, and laid Annabeth out gently against it.

Will walked over to her, and Bianca quickly followed, curious to watch what would happen next. The Gorgon blood made sense. Annabeth was hard to watch, with how sickly she seemed. At least she wasn’t wet, due to Percy’s intervention. The rain was _freezing._

“Well?” Percy asked after a few minutes of silent examination. He crossed his arms across his chest, and generally did his best to look intimidating, which Bianca found silly. Either Will could do something, or he couldn’t. It was impossible to boss him into fixing Annabeth.

“I think I can fix this,” Will said after a moment of hesitation. “We keep Gorgon blood for an emergency. But, it’s in the Big House. Chiron is the only one who has access to the key for it.”

“Okay, then wake him up.”

“He’s going to have questions, you know.”

Percy looked like he was about to lose it. “I figured. I already agreed to answer a question or two, alright? Now, there’s a life on the line, if you don’t mind.”

Will nodded to him before focusing on Bianca. “Watch her, make sure we don’t lose her while I’m gone,” he told her, the unspoken _and make sure we don’t lose Percy either,_ crossing their heads at the same time.

She managed a tired smile. “I will.”

Will hurried back out towards the Big House, and Bianca sighed, collapsing in a plastic chair next to the cot Annabeth was spread out on. Percy remained standing, serious and still. Bianca eyed him curiously as she squeezed the water out of her hair. Such a mess. “You can sit down, you know.”

“I prefer standing,” Percy said shortly.

“C’mon,” she cajoled. “Will is getting help. You can relax.”

“In Camp Half-Blood? Not possible.” Regardless, Percy did finally sit down next to her, looking extremely uncomfortable.

“So,” Bianca started as she began to comb out her hair with her fingers, “what exactly led up to her getting-- Well, you know.”

“I really don’t want to discuss it more than I have to. I’m sure Chiron is going to want to know as well.” 

“Fair,” she conceded. After a moment, she looked at him. “He’s probably going to call a meeting with all the head counselors to talk about it. It’s not often we get one of Kronos’ cronies in the camp.”

“Nice alliteration.”

“Thanks.”

He sighed, working a hand through his unfairly dry hair. “Okay, sure. I’ve already made so many compromises tonight. God, it’s not going to be fun to go back and explain all of this to Luke.”

“Then you could stay here,” Bianca suggested, though it was a surprise to herself even as she said it. “I’m sure Chiron would be more than happy to have you back.” He snorted. “It’s true!”

“It’s not that I don’t think it’s true,” Percy replied, “it’s that, no offense, I’d rather jump into Tartarus before I side with you guys.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Look, Bianca, I’m sure you’re all very nice, and I’m sure you agree with what you’re fighting for, but I think your god-worshipping tendencies are a little out of touch, alright? I’m not a big fan of the pantheon wrecking my life, and then going about like they’re untouchable and never guilty.”

“Who’s out of touch now?” Bianca huffed, shooting him a look. “You talk like Kronos is the cure to all that ails you, like he isn’t aiming to rule over humans just the same. Worse, even!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Bianca blinked in surprise, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at Annabeth dead-on, his expression unreadable. “He’s not a good person. Kronos is a _terrible_ person. I know that, alright? But who else is petitioning for the Gods to be taken down? None of you. If not wanting the Gods to be in power anymore is evil, then fine, I’m evil. We can deal with Kronos after the first wave is dealt with.”

They were silent for a long time before she pointed out, “You called me Bianca just now.”

He laughed, which shocked her. It was just a quiet chuckle, but it was so humanizing. It made him look younger, like the fourteen-year-old he actually was. “Yeah, I know your name, di Angelo. Don’t get used to me calling you it, though.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Jackson.”

They sat in uneasy camaraderie until the door opened up again to reveal Will, and just behind him stood Chiron, lit up by the lights of the infirmary. There was an emotion that overwhelmed his face, something surprised, and hopeful, and terrified. “Perseus Jackson,” he said, his voice conveying all of it.

Percy looked up at him and said, “Hi, Chiron,” in a very small voice.

The two stared at each other, and there was something Bianca couldn’t understand in their met gazes. Maybe she didn’t have to understand it, though. They had known each other before Percy joined Kronos, before he lost his mother, before everything. Maybe whatever passed in their silent conversation wasn’t hers to know.

Will held up a bottle awkwardly, the two of them turning to look at him. “I got the Gorgon blood,” he said, unnervingly bright as to cover up how uncomfortable he was. Percy nodded quickly, standing back up to help him.

Chiron stepped over to Bianca and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and told her quietly, “You did the right thing, Bianca.” She placed a hand on top of his but didn’t respond. She felt a little fragile, for whatever reason.

She watched as Percy fretted over Annabeth, holding her hand like it was the one thing he had to do, and then she’d be good as new, preening around like a spring chicken. If he could save her just through the power of love, she’d have to tell Nico. He was such a big fan of those Japanese TV shows revolving around that.

His eyes tracked Will as he transferred the Gorgon blood from the vial to a syringe, large enough that it made Bianca sweat. “If this doesn’t work…” Percy began, letting the rest of the threat go unsaid. Will and Bianca rolled their eyes as one while Chiron chastised, “Percy, honestly.” He huffed, put in line by that simple disappointment. Interesting.

Will wiped down Annabeth’s arm with alcohol and didn’t hesitate before pressing the needle into her. He pressed the Gorgon blood in slowly, but it didn’t take a healer to catch the immediate effects. Bianca watched how in seconds as Annabeth’s fever broke, her breath evened out, and the skin returned to a healthier color. She watched Percy see it too. He nearly collapsed as he curled around the hand he was holding.

Will pulled the syringe from her arm and laughed in pure, breathless relief. “I’m really glad that worked,” he added.

It took a few minutes more before Annabeth finally regained consciousness, and she did it in the most Annabeth way possible: by sitting up in a panic and whipping a hidden dagger around her in less than a second’s notice. Percy managed to dodge, but Will got nicked on the shoulder for his troubles.

“Ungrateful!” He went, indigent, before grumbling his way over to the bandages. Bianca patted him on the back as he went.

Annabeth looked around the infirmary, lowering her dagger as she went on a face journey through all five stages of grief in less than a minute. “Percy,” she began, very slowly. “What the hell am I doing here?”

He tackled her in a hug.

Bianca led Chiron and Will out, which they both adamantly argued against, but she silenced them with one foul look and the assurance that she had forced Percy into a promise on the River Styx that they’d get some information. Annabeth was _fine._ A little disoriented, but she seemed fine otherwise. Bianca was thirteen, not tone-deaf, and she could recognize when people needed space.

Regardless, she pushed open the curtain that surrounded the cot Annabeth was laid out on, just a crack, just to tell them they would have to stay in the Big House for the night, and they’d hold their meeting after breakfast.

Bianca felt guilty when she peeked in. Percy was sitting on the cot with Annabeth, their legs intertwined like they were one person separated, the kind of story the Aphrodite kids giggled about whenever Valentine’s day rolled around. Annabeth was laughing, and it made her look softer than Bianca had ever seen.

“Yeah, I know, I know, I’m hopeless,” Percy continued from some hook of conversation she had missed, and there was something frayed in his voice that snagged Bianca’s attention. “How would you react, though? Be honest.”

“I would take out a Gorgon myself,” Annabeth answered, wry. “Your plan took longer.”

He laughed, though it was barely a laugh. It was a huffing, snorty thing like the pegasi did when you rode them too long and didn’t feed them enough treats. “My bad.”

Bianca closed the curtain again and stepped away as quietly as she could. Their moment wasn’t hers to spy on, she reminded herself. Even if they were on the wrong side, they still deserved respect and privacy. She grabbed a notepad from one of the desks covered in supplies instead and scribbled out a note for them, quickly shoving it under the doorway and absconding.

The thought of them being unable to leave under oath assured her until she finally saw them leave the infirmary later, watching out of the Hades cabin window. They made their way to the Big House steadily, entirely unlike how Bianca thought traitors would walk over to it. Chiron came out to greet them, curlers still tight in his tail. Bianca went to bed.

The morning came faster than she imagined; it was like one second she was shutting her eyes, and a second later came the wake-up call from the Big House, the conch shell loud and blaring and, most egregious of offenses, not even all that Greek.

Bianca was _tired._ It wasn’t even how late she ended up staying the night previous - she had been pushing her body through shadow jump after shadow jump, and now that she finally found a period of rest, that’s all her body wanted to do.

She also really, really missed Nico. Maybe she wasn’t expressing it enough, but without him around, even just sleeping on the opposite side of the room from her, it felt like a hollow ache in the inside of her chest. She groaned, covering her face with her hands as she worked the energy to get up.

While she had been looking for him, popping town to town, she kept finding Mythomagic cards and figurines that made her think of him. She had dozens of packs in her room in Hades’ palace, just waiting for him to unwrap. Bianca swore to all that was holy, she was going to get information on how to get Nico back, or she was going to find a way to drown the son of Poseidon.

Bianca made her way down to the dining pavilion, barely stopping to brush her hair. As she approached, she realized even more campers were swarming the area than usual. Even with the promise of free breakfast, a lot of campers still tended to skip it in favor of sleeping in or working on a project. Bianca grinned to herself. She was sure she had no idea why everyone was there that morning, no idea at all.

People greeted her happily as she passed and, alright, she couldn’t help but feel a little smug when she caught Percy and Annabeth sitting in the front with Chiron, looking horrifically embarrassed. Annabeth kept trying to make eye contact with the Athena table, but they were pointedly not looking at her. Dionysus wasn’t up at the table with them, likely to make it all the easier for him to ignore them. Oh, this was _fun._

Bianca waved at them, a touch cattily, and snorted when they didn’t wave back, just stared at their plates. It made even sitting alone at her table enjoyable.

She chewed her way through her bacon and eggs - after a quick prayer that she’d get Nico back soon, naturally - until Chiron finally called for attention and the room silenced up so quickly you’d think someone pressed mute.

“Now,” he began, his voice booming across the hall, “I’m sure all of you have noticed our newest guests. In the night, we received a visit from Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. Many of you remember them well.” Booing and further heckling came from several of the tables until Chiron pounded his hoof again, silencing them with a disappointed look. “In fifteen minutes, I request all senior counselors join us in the Big House for a war council. We have much to discuss, including the whereabouts of young Nico di Angelo.”

He moved onto brighter news, like reminding the camp that their capture-the-flag game was the next day, but the possibility of getting information from high-level leaders of the Titan Army had people buzzing, anxious and excited murmurs echoing around the pavilion.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of waiting, Chiron beckoned the senior counselors to follow him, all of the campers scrambling to comply. Annabeth and Percy walked up at the front with him, the two of them walking so closely together they kept bumping shoulders. Was something going on with them? Surely there was, though Bianca supposed they could just be overcompensating for being surrounded by people who disliked them.

The council was just held over the ping pong table, chairs pulled hastily underneath it as they all gathered around. Percy and Annabeth sat at the head of the table, with Chiron standing next to him. Even Will Solace, who was definitely not the senior counsel of the Apollo cabin, was there. He set a couple of vials out in the middle of the table.

“What’s this?” Connor Stoll asked, poking at them, the liquid inside a dark red.

“Ah-- Do be careful with those,” Chiron warned. “It’s Gorgon blood.”

He pulled his hand away like he had been burnt as someone gave an impressed whistle. “Gorgon blood,” he repeated warily. “...Yeah, okay, why not.”

“Hey, Bianca,” Lee Fletcher, the actual Apollo counselor, greeted, sliding into his seat next to her. 

“Hi, Lee.”

“What’s this about, anyway? Are they defecting?”

“Uh, no, not really, unfortunately.” Bianca made a face and looked towards Chiron, who was waiting for everyone to get settled. “We’ll explain in a sec, but they’re still pretty insistent that they’re sticking on the opposite side.”

Lee hummed, quickly moving on to talk to Clarisse once he realized there wasn’t much else for her to tell. Chiron finally caught her eye, and after a moment of whispered conversation with Will, knocked his hoof against the ground lightly. The sound was still enough to draw everyone’s attention, and they all focused on him and their guests, going quiet.

“Now then, before we start, I will catch us all up to speed,” Chiron began. “While Bianca was out patrolling for young Nico di Angelo, she encountered Percy and Annabeth at the safehouse she was staying at, with Annabeth severely ill. Bianca shadow traveled the two of them to camp under oath that they will give her information about her brother’s whereabouts. Thanks to Will Solace here and his expertise, we managed to heal her.” Will looked vaguely smug and accepted a fist-bump from his brother. “Do you care to explain what rendered her sick, you three?”

After a long moment, Percy finally muttered, quiet, “It was a mixture of Gorgon’s blood we use on monsters back at the base. Half right side, half left side. It’s just supposed to incapacitate them for a little bit. Make them feel pain. We don’t use it on humans.”

“And yet you did anyway.” Will raised an eyebrow. The others didn’t have quite the same startled reaction as Will did the night before, but they did whisper nervously to one another for a minute. They taught the properties of Gorgon’s blood in training, but hardly any of them had fought one, let alone had to handle their blood directly. “Regardless, I managed to heal Annabeth by injecting her with pure blood from the right side. It can heal near-any ailment. Pretty valuable stuff.”

Clarisse La Rue snorted. “And yet we wasted it on the traitors over here? Makes total sense.”

Bianca could see Annabeth and Percy’s hackles rise as one, but she leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. “Alright, Clarisse,” she said loudly, and everyone’s attention turned on her. “Go ahead and tell me that if one of _your_ younger siblings was kidnapped, you would go and leave the person that has information about them to die? Go ahead and tell me I did something wrong.”

She scowled, sinking down into her seat. That shut her up easily enough, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it. Everyone knew that she liked her younger siblings a lot more than she let on, and that fact was often able to be weaponized.

Chiron coughed awkwardly to break up the tension. “That being said, Annabeth and Percy have shown willingness to give us some information. Isn’t that right?” The pair grunted but didn’t protest otherwise, so Chiron smiled weakly. “Wonderful. Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“Well, not from the beginning-beginning,” Percy said.

Chiron amended, “From when you took Nico, perhaps?”

“Alright. That’s manageable.” He sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair. After a moment, he caught Annabeth’s gaze and she nodded at him, a tiny thing, barely noticeable unless you were paying attention. “Our whole plan was just to get the apples before you all, alright? It had nothing to do with kidnapping anyone. We don’t kidnap people. We don’t need to.”

“But?” Bianca said, unimpressed, and his mouth thinned out into a guilty line.

“It was just an idea someone came up with a few hours before we left,” he continued defensively. “We didn’t know it’d actually _work._ ”

“And that should make it better, how?”

“Bianca, c’mon,” Silena Bueraguard said from the side opposite Lee. She touched her arm gently. “They’re never going to get to explain like this.” Bianca sighed and nodded, signaling for the pair to continue.

“So, we took him, and the apples,” Annabeth said, taking up the thread from Percy. “We were tasked with monitoring Nico after we took him. Everyone else was keeping track of you and just.. Waiting. Once you got desperate enough that you started getting reckless, we’d swoop in and take you too. More chance to force information out of you, sends Camp Half-Blood into further disarray, and we get to figure out what exactly we want to do with you,” she explained, her voice remaining impassive even as Bianca’s stomach swooped at the unsaid implications in her last sentence.

“What does that have to do with you getting yourself poisoned?” Travis Stoll asked, eyeing them while he worked his way through a pack of peanut M&M’s. Bianca was torn between telling him to be more serious about this, and asking if he’d share some.

Annabeth’s lips curved downwards and Percy’s hand reached over and intertwined with hers. “I didn’t like the plan,” Annabeth admitted after a moment, blowing a piece of hair out from in front of her face. “I don’t like dealing with the younger kids. Feels wrong. And it involved a lot of stuff that made me uneasy as time wore on. Like, Bianca not being able to find Nico via shadow travel? We keep him in a cage thing where there’s light from every direction, twenty-four/seven. Zero chance of a shadow.”

“That-- That’s torture,” Malcolm Pace stammered. He was one of the younger counselors, around Bianca’s age, though he had been there since he was ten. As a son of Athena, he had actually grown up with Annabeth. What must he be feeling?

“I know,” she agreed, grim. She shot him a stricken look that said a lot and nothing at all, before tearing her eyes away. Bianca considered her in a new light for a moment. Both of them were elder sisters, dealing with younger brothers in different ways.

“Look, besides the light stuff, he’s fine. We’re feeding him. We give him a sleeping mask. We’re not being worse than we have to be. I’m not saying it’s good, I’m just--” Annabeth sighed, rubbing her arm like a nervous tic. “Point is, I didn’t think it was right. So I said to Percy-- I told him, um, I’m not doing this anymore.”

“And you snitched her out!” Conner accused. Percy shot him a withering look, and Conner sank back down. “Er. I mean. I didn’t say that.”

“Sure. What I _actually_ did was agree with her. Me and her started planning to help him, like, slipping him notes in his food and talking to him a little bit when he was awake and nobody was around, but then Annabeth got caught talking to while I was down getting Nico his food and--” Percy spread his hands out helplessly.

“The monster that caught me, she’s this cyclops. Her name’s, um, Jayana, I think. Anyways, she brought me in front of Luke and explained what happened. Since she’s a-- cyclops, she could repeat everything exactly as it happened, in the same exact voice.” Annabeth shivered, closing her eyes. “And since I’m one of Luke’s right-hand-men, I’m not about to be thrown out, but I still tried to help Nico. Not good.”

Annabeth didn’t continue, so Percy picked up the slack. “I had plausible deniability, but--” Percy grimaced, “--they still weren’t all that pleased with me. I got dragged in front of them as well, gave my partial side of the story, vouched for her, blah blah frickin’ blah. I was let off, but Annabeth obviously had to be made an example of.”

Annabeth nodded with a sigh. “Jayana asked what she should do to punish me, what the limits were. I mean, obviously, I wasn’t allowed to be killed, but that was all that was definite. She wanted to know how hard she was allowed to go, so she could get just barely under the line. And Luke said--” She stopped for a moment, looking down at the table. Percy scooted over a little bit until their shoulders were touching. Annabeth continued, “And he said, ‘Do what you like.’”

The room was quiet. Nobody was quite sure what to say in response to that. The elder counselors could remember what she and Luke were like together first hand, and even the ones like Bianca who had arrived after they had left knew the stories about how close they were. To think that he’d just let monsters do whatever they wanted to someone Bianca had heard he considered his little sister… 

“And so you got poisoned,” Silena said softly, and Annabeth let out a very small sigh of relief before taking the bait and promptly moving on.

“Right. I’m hoping her logic was, oh, this stuff works on monsters, this’ll be fine to use on a human. Or, well, you know, just incredibly painful rather than deadly. Anyways, I got injected with the stuff, and it just sort of hurt in the beginning, like it’s supposed to. But, um, I mean, this one over here got a little worried--” She cracked a small smile and punched Percy lightly on the shoulder, “--and kept watch of me until we realized I was getting worse rather than remaining at a constant level of hurt.”

“The ship’s been tracking di Angelo, so we were pretty close by,” Percy continued. “It was easy enough to just swim us over to the safehouse and wait for her to show up. Or, uh, see if we could contact Chiron and have him do something about it. You all know the rest.”

The room processed the information on their own for a few minutes. Charles Beckendorf of the Hephestus cabin finally broke the silence by asking, “What was your plan for getting Nico out?”

“It was still in the planning stage,” Annabeth clarified. “It was shaping up to be us manufacturing an electronic blackout, which would kill the lights for maybe a few minutes. Enough time for him to get away.”

“And if you got caught doing that?”

“Then we would’ve had more time to plan for that as well. It wasn’t concrete yet, alright? But I wasn’t looking to have him sit in that cage any longer than he had to. We’re not evil or anything.”

Will raised a tentative hand. “You guys keep the concoction on hand, so that means you keep the antidote on hand as well. Why didn’t you give her right-side blood from wherever you’re staying?”

“You say that like it’s easy.” Percy grinned, crooked. “We actually _don’t_ keep the antidote stocked like we do the poison, or it’d be too easy for monsters to take care of their punishment themselves. We have a Gorgon as a part of the army, and we have to get blood from her directly. It’d be suspicious to ask for some myself, not to mention she doesn’t like me.”

“Lots of people on your side tend to not like you, it seems.”

“Yeah, well, I did kill Medusa, so she isn’t exactly pleased about that.”

“WHAT.”

“Hey, I have some questions too,” Bianca interrupted. “One, Annabeth: when I asked how you two found me at the safehouse, Percy mentioned you built it?”

“Me, Luke, and Thalia did when we were on the run,” Annabeth answered easily. “When we first tracked you there I remembered going there as a kid, and we figured you'd head to the safehouse eventually.”

Bianca made a silent note to try and avoid pre-built safehouses in the future. “Right. That leads to my next question: how are you tracking me, exactly?”

Percy and Annabeth shared a look with one another, then laughed. It wasn’t the sort of laughter you’d hear after you told a funny joke; it was the laughter of someone who knew more than you and heard you just ask a stupid question. Bianca felt very condescended to as their smiles turned into something more serious and closed off.

“Okay, di Angelo, you know what?” Annabeth leaned towards Bianca, who instinctively leaned back. Her gray eyes were sharp and dangerous. In the face of the short-lived connection they had shared just moments previously, Bianca had nearly forgotten that they made her look predatory more often than not. “Question time is officially over.”

“That’s not fair,” Bianca complained, a tad nervous.

“What’s not fair?” Percy asked, rhetorical. “Keeping promises? We’re still going to give you the information about your brother, but we’re not idiots. We know when and where to draw the line. We’re still on different sides of the war, as you all so aptly tend to remind.”

Bianca didn’t have a retort to that and slunk down into her seat. She couldn’t make them say anything, really, except what they had already been sworn into telling. Everything else they had received in their talk had just been a free bonus. “Fine,” she muttered.

Annabeth appeared satisfied for a flash, before continuing, “Now, final order of business: can we take some of that?” She pointed to the healing Gorgon blood Will and Chiron had placed out on the table for the counselors to examine. “Not all of it, just a few bottles or something.”

“What for?” Clarisse asked suspiciously.

“Oh, come on La Rue.” Katie Gardner scoffed as everyone swiveled to face her. “Isn’t it obvious?” Her eyes were soil dark and fixated on Annabeth and Percy, who met her gaze placidly, waiting for her to just say it already. “They poisoned Annabeth once already just for _attempting_ to help someone. What do you think they’re going to do to a bunch of traitors when they get back?”

The table fell quiet at that reminder, and Percy and Annabeth didn’t do anything to argue the point. Their expressions remained impassive, stoic, and Bianca wanted to bang her head against the table. “Why do you stay with a side that poisons you if you dare to do what’s right?” Bianca murmured angrily, half to herself, but Annabeth sighed anyway.

“You don’t actually care about why we’re doing this,” Annabeth said without accusation. Just stating a fact. “You all don’t know anything about what our lives are like. What our heads are like. I get it, just because we went over to ‘the dark side,’ we’re irredeemable or blind to logic. The fact of the matter is, no matter how many times we explain, are you ever going to truly understand? If not, then what’s the point of justifying ourselves to you?”

“All we need to do is give you the information on how to get Nico home, and we leave,” continued Percy, his hand tight in Annabeth’s. Bianca met his eyes, trying to find something behind them she could use.

“I could stop you from leaving,” she said.

He smiled. “But you won’t.” She had seen pictures of him in the yearbook of the middle school Chiron taught at. In those, Percy had looked-- not light and happy, exactly, but like a latchkey twelve-year-old. The kind of way a kid was supposed to look. All the pictures after his mom died were different. He still had the same expression now as he did in the pictures from the summer he arrived: empty-eyed, tired, like a wire about to snap.

Bianca looked away first.

“...Anyways, we’re probably not going to be put back on Nico duty again for a while,” Annabeth considered. “Or have the same free access to the ship that allowed for the possibility of us manufacturing a power outage. But if you managed to get there at the right time, you can probably take the guards out and turn out the lights.”

Bianca sighed. If that was the best they could do, she’d take it. “Alright. Explain to me how it should go.”

Several hours later, they had a plan formulated, and Annabeth was as fine as she could get. Bianca, Chiron, and the rest of the camp could probably keep them there, force them to stay but… Percy was right. They weren’t going to keep them there. Bianca rationalized it by comparing forcing them to stay and Nico being held captive. The truth was, however, she didn’t really know why she was letting them go. It’d be so _easy_ to make them stay. To help them see the correct side.

Bianca had stopped by the pavilion for a late lunch, but as she walked away from it, she caught Percy walking towards the beach, struggling with a backpack. They had sworn to not pull any tricks, so she wasn’t worried about them causing trouble, but she walked over anyways.

“Percy,” she said, the name dangling out in front of her. He turned his head back for just a second to see who was calling his name before he turned his attention back to his bag. They were letting them take the Gorgon blood, as well as some clothes and food. They had opted not to take the Camp Half-Blood branded bags from the camp store, instead, accepting some worn-out ones from the storage shed. “Those things are probably filled with spiders.”

Percy snorted. “Don’t let Annabeth hear you saying that. They’re fine. Falling apart a little, but they work well enough.”

“How are you getting back to the base?”

“Eh, I’ll probably call on some Hippocampi. They can take us over there pretty quickly.”

Bianca crossed her arms. In a last-ditch effort, she suggested, “Isn’t it sort of lame to use your inherited powers when you’re trying to overthrow your own dad?”

“I’m not fighting about this with you!” He declared without heat. “It’s not like he can turn them off. Besides, if I can’t use my powers against him, then what are they good for? It’s not like refusing to utilize the privilege you have actually does anything. If anything, using my powers for my cause is more impactful than using them to uphold the godly status quo.”

Bianca groaned. There was just no use in arguing with him. After a moment, she quickly asked,  
“Wait. You’re not going to sell us out or anything, right? Like, when you get back, you aren’t going to turn around and be like, oh we’re not traitors, we’ve got this cool information now and we know Bianca’s plan to get her brother back, so we can change it at the last minute.”

He didn’t look at her as he secured his backpack. “You didn’t make me swear an oath for that.”

She sighed, suddenly very exhausted by their whole game of cat and mouse. “Jackson, I'm being serious here.”

Percy straightened up, and that’s when she realized he was smiling, just a tiny bit. The corners of his mouth just barely upturned to reveal teeth. As soon as it came, it was gone, and Percy was turning to meet her, hand outstretched. “I won’t sell you out,” he told her firmly. “You can trust me.”

“We’ll see,” she replied, but she didn’t hesitate before grasping his hand, shaking it. They should’ve done a blood bond or something, with how buddy-buddy they had been getting over the past day.

He pulled away and then shrugged the backpack onto his shoulders. The mid-day sun bore down on them, and Bianca hoped she’d see Percy again in better circumstances someday. “See you around, di Angelo,” he said, before heading off to meet with Annabeth.

When he reached her, at the edge of the beach, they talked for a moment, their conversation silent in the distance. Then, their hands clasped together, and Percy let out a loud whistle with two fingers. Two hippocampi swam up to shore, and Bianca watched as her enemies boarded them. She let them. She watched them swim away, the sea sending up a dazzling spray as they moved.

And then, they were gone.

Bianca stood out on the shoreline a little while longer before heading back to camp. She wondered what kind of life they were both living, separate yet together, influencing each other every day like the moon affected the tides.

She let herself ponder that until she reached her cabin, her fingers rubbing against the obsidian of the front door. No matter, she decided. They’d figure out where they stood next time they met. For now - and she smiled at the thought - she had a younger brother to save.

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy queen i saw your tweet about how kronos’ lieutenants are trash and i just wanted to let you know that i agree. although i myself am in kronos’ army, (i know, ugh) i am on your side. “one of the good ones” as some may say. btw i never even noticed how fast you can shadow travel until till now but thats awesome
> 
> [bianca playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gA0DskWJFhdLKBEOq961V)  
> [dark percy and annabeth playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qUv48WC2l46U5pSbJcci8)  
> [tumblr](http://www.selkiecoded.tumblr.com)


End file.
